Audience Award

THE ROCKET

A ten-year-old pariah desperately strives to earn redemption and reverse his family’s fortunes by constructing a prize-winning rocket. Making exemplary use of his Laos setting, Kim Mordaunt crafts "a lush and bruising coming-of-age story…"—Variety

FANIE FOURIE’S LOBOLA

When an Afrikaner man romances a Zulu woman, there’s bound to be a price to pay. In the case of Fanie and Dinky, it’s her dowry (known in South Africa as lobola). Cultures clash and sparks fly in Henk Pretorius’ star-crossed romantic comedy.

Winner, Audience Award, Seattle 2013.

MATTERHORN

Humane and hugely enjoyable! An isolated widower is shaken from his persnickety routine when a gentle, not-quite-right stranger wanders into his neighbourhood. As he strives to better his new charge’s lot in life, Diederik Ebbinge’s comedy takes a turn for the absurd.

Winner, Audience Award, Rotterdam 2013.

THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

A bluegrass musician and his wife learn their young daughter has cancer in Felix van Groeningen’s masterful evocation of the power of music to convey both joy and sadness. "An immaculately observed, desperately moving story of love, loss, and bluegrass music…"—Indiewire

ADJUDICATED AWARDS

Best Film

I BELONG

(Som du Ser Meg)

Norway | Director: Dag Johan Haugerud

A nurse’s forgiving nature proves her undoing. A translator’s reputation is left in tatters. A cash-strapped senior’s pride takes a beating. Dag Johan Haugerud’s three-part tragicomedy is alternately playful and pointed, displaying a remarkable understanding of our frailties and the daily dilemmas that trip us up.

SO MUCH WATER

(Tanta agua)

This quietly humorous coming-of-age story focuses on 14-year-old Lucía (Malú Chouza, perfect) as she suffers through a rain-drenched vacation with her always-underfoot divorced dad (Néstor Guzzin, hilarious and touching) and her little brother in Uruguay’s northwest.

Winner, Best First Film, Guadalajara 2013.

SOUL

A thriller that takes an unsettling look at demonic possession, Chung Mong-hong’s powerful drama follows A-chuan, a quiet 30-year-old chef who abruptly collapses. He is sent back to his father’s home in the mountains to recuperate, where he remains catatonic and mute, until one day…

Winner, Best Narrative Film, Best Actor, Taipei 2013.

ARAF: SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

Araf means purgatory and that’s where the longings of the spirit and body will take young Zehra. With stunningly directed scenes of seductive music and winter landscapes, Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s potently soulful drama "creates resonant images that blend countryside, village and landscape into rich visual emotions…"—Hollywood Reporter

Winner, Best Film, Abu Dhabi 2012.

WADJDA

The first feature film made entirely within Saudi Arabia, female director Haifaa Al Mansour’s drama follows 10-year-old Wadjda as she asserts her independence and negotiates the realities of growing up a woman in that nation. "Delivers a winning, handsomely crafted story with a charismatic lead guaranteed to charm…"—Variety

Winner, Best Film, Dubai 2012; Audience Award, Los Angeles 2013.

BREACH IN THE SILENCE

(Brecha en el silencio)

Born deaf and mute, and exploited by her parents, 19-year-old Ana resolves to save her siblings from suffering similar indignities. Former social workers Andrés and Luis Rodríguez ensure that the hard won victories in their visually spectacular debut ring true and resonate deeply.

Winner, Best First Film, Best Actress, Cairo 2013.

THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT

(Das merkwürdige Kätzchen)

This droll, remarkably controlled comedy chronicling one day in the life of a multigenerational family prepping a celebratory dinner in a cramped apartment buzzes with life. Catapulted young director Ramon Zürcher to the forefront of German cinema.

Winner, New Talent Grand Prize, CPH PIX 2013.

CODE BLACK

A doctor at LA County hospital, first-time filmmaker Ryan McGarry provides the ultimate insider’s look at the realities of the ER and the adrenaline-charged residents who work there. Fast-paced and provocative, McGarry’s accomplished work will disturb and enlighten by turns.

Winner, Best Documentary, Los Angeles 2013.

A RIVER CHANGES COURSE

A sobering look at how encroaching modernity is threatening the livelihoods and traditions of three families in different parts of Cambodia, Kalyanee Mam’s vérité documentary "handles its material so deftly that you can’t help but become an active participant in the journey."—The AU Review

Winner, World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary, Sundance 2013.

THE KILL TEAM

If you were a young soldier in Afghanistan and thought the
line between the "fog of war" and "killing for sport" was being crossed, would you blow the whistle? Adam Winfield did, and then found himself a target of one of the largest war crimes investigations in U.S. history. Dan Krauss directed this riveting, must-see exposé of what armed foreign intervention can lead to.

Winner, Best Documentary (World), Tribeca 2013.

WHEN I WALK

When M.S. suddenly robbed filmmaker Jason DaSilva of his ability to walk, the Emily Carr graduate did what came naturally: started making a documentary. This intimate, affecting piece spans seven years and charts both DaSilva’s slow acceptance of his degenerative condition and staunch refusal to relinquish his lust for life.

Winner, Best Canadian Feature, Hot Docs 2013.

Best Director

HONEYMOON

(Líbánky)

When an unwelcome guest crashes a wedding, his presence casts a pall over the fairytale occasion. Capping the trilogy that includes VIFF favourites Kawasaki’s Rose and Innocence, Jan Hřebejk crafts a compelling reminder of Faulkner’s assertion, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past."

Winner, Best Director, Karlovy Vary 2013.

TRAPPED

(Darband)

Iran | Director: Parviz Shahbazi

Parviz Shahbazi’s engrossing moral thriller hinges on the bristling relationship between two young women in contemporary Tehran, both caught in troubled times. Forced to share an apartment with party-loving Sahar, determined med-student Nazanin feels like a prisoner in her own home. But when Sahar is wrongfully arrested, Nazanin campaigns for her release.

Winner, Best Director, Fajr 2013.

THE MACHINE WHICH MAKES EVERYTHING DISAPPEAR

(Manqana, romelic kvelafers gaaqrobs)

During a series of open auditions, Tinatin Gurchiani turns her camera on young Georgians, discovering both aspiring stars and disenfranchised strugglers eager to share their stories. Self-deprecating humour and heart-rending accounts of war and domestic strife conspire in highly cinematic vignettes.

Winner, World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary, Sundance 2013.

HARMONY LESSONS

(Uroki garmonii)

With its culture of intimidation, the playground has always eerily resembled a prison yard. Equally lyrical and jarring, Emir Baigazin’s commanding debut centres on a teenager trapped in a cycle of mind games and bullying. "Grimly poetic, formally disciplined and psychologically gripping…"—Hollywood Reporter

Best Actress

GLORIA

Paulina García is fantastic as the eponymous lead, a woman in her mid-50s, newly divorced, who refuses to give up on love and sex in Sebastián Lelio’s intimate drama. "Funny, melancholy and ultimately uplifting, Lelio’s enormously satisfying [film] never puts a foot wrong."—Hollywood Reporter